• Check whether the details of approved plan have been displayed at the site.

• Check whether the promoter/power of attorney has the right to transfer the undivided share of land.

• Check whether the completion certificate has been obtained after the completion of the building.

• Check the records with Directorate of Town and Country Planning and ascertain the need for layout approval.

Courtrsy: The Hindu Property Plus in Chennai Date: 10 – Jan – 2009.

Building approval does not depend on submission date

Imagine that you submit an application for approval on a particular date and when the authorities take the plan for processing the rules have changed and you are at a disadvantage.

You may like to contest that the date of submission must be considered and the rules that prevailed then must be applied.

But it is well settled by the law that date of approval of the Building Plan would be the date on which the approval is granted and not the date on which the plans are submitted.

As a result, the rules in vogue during the date of approval would be applicable (Us man Gani Vs Contentment Board (1992) 3 SC 455). This was reiterated recently in the case involving New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Tanvi Trading and Credit Pvt Ltd at New Delhi ((2008) 8 Supreme Court cases 765).

An application to sanction the building plans for construction of two and a half storied building having 15 dwelling units in the Lutyens Bungalow zone (LBZ), New Delhi was made in April 1998. The NDMC rejected the plans in June 1998.

The Respondent filed an appeal before the appellate tribunal and it was remanded to the NDMC in 1999 holding that the guidelines were issued in 1988 and interim in nature.

The respondents were of the opinion that the matter should not have been remanded to NDMC and therefore challenged the order by an appeal before the Lt. Governor.

When it was rejected, a writ petition was filed before the High Court of Delhi. During the pendency of the petitions, the High Court, by its order in 2000, directed the Chairman NDMC to consider the question of grant of sanction of the plans originally submitted.

The Chairman rejected the plans holding that the guidelines issued in 1988 were not interim in nature as observed by the tribunal and was mandatory. The matter finally reached the Supreme Court, where the respondents contended that LBZ guidelines 1988 had no legal basis or statutory foundation.

The court stated that the Respondent would be entitled to construct bungalow on their plot of land in terms of guidelines issued in 1988 and further clarified by the Government in 1997.

In this case, it was stated that the date of application was not important but only the date on which the approval was given mattered.